JWS Feedback

[Jeff Palmer]

On May 3, 2012, at 7:00 PM, Scott Kovatch wrote:

> 
> On May 2, 2012, at 12:21 PM, Jeff Palmer wrote:
> 
>> - Explicitly requesting a 1.6 version gets Unsupported version of Java dialog. Same with 1.6+, 1.7, & 1.7.0_06-ea.  Leaving out version tag correctly errors, saying there must be a version.  This makes JWS virtually untestable.  Prefer 1.6+ to work, so same .jnlp can work for Snow Leopard.
> 
> Can you add 1.6 to the list of JREs in the Java Control Panel? Choose 'Java' -> 'View…' -> 'Find' and then navigate to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines? It should find any 1.6 JDK installed there. Then click OK and 'Apply'. We should then start using 1.6 if the JNLP wants it.
> 
> While this is not as good as discovering Java 6 automatically, we aren't currently supporting that. We may end up doing it but not guaranteeing compatibility with Java 6.
> 

Lets start over by stating what it is I want:
- A single JNLP which could be put into production today.
- Would start Java 7 to run an application on Windows / linux.
- Would start Java 7 to run an application on OSX if available, otherwise start Java 6.

Today, Java 6 would get used on all versions of OS X.  Once the OS update happens on Lion, and the customer loads it, they should start running using Java 7.  Snow leopard continues to start Java 6.

Of course, this means code must be build for Java 1.6, but has the upside of having the customer base already using Java 7 when a compelling reason is found to use a Java 7 feature.  With a little lead time, Snow Leopard customers can told to upgrade to Mountain Loin in that case.  This is not an education product involving school budgets, making it is impossible Snow Leopard under the bus.
- - - - - - -
How I want to do this is using the ability of specifying multiple versions to use when the os="Mac".  The JNLP reference material says multiple versions can be specified in priority order, so all of the above should be accomplishable with:

  <resources>
      <j2se version="1.7+"/>
      <jar href="my-app.jar" main="true" />
  </resources>

  <resources os="Mac">
      <j2se 
          version="1.7+"
          version="1.6+"
      />
  </resources>
- - - - - - - 
What is happening is the following message is displayed:




One big problem is "WELL WHAT VERSION DOES IT THINK WAS BEING ASKED FOR?"  Will submit a bug to show this as well on the message.

I tried a whole list of stuff multiple times, but always the same result.  Then I remembered I had another JWS application built & signed the same that is not for general use.  I made resources match above, and changed the little single for dialog to show the JVM running in the title.   Starts just fine on Lion, running 1.7.  Have not restarted as SN to absolutely nail down it works there too, but SN does work with a single 1.6+ in the Mac section.

So something is different.  Can I assume that this must be in the JNLP and not the app?  I cannot really submit a bug without better isolation.  

A couple of other troubling things are:   I followed the directions to un-install, then re-installed the plug-in.  There is something missing from those directions.  Something like file already exists happens on re-install from the terminal commands.  After the second re-install, I no longer get a Java icon in Preferences app.  

Also apart from the very first time run, never get the dialog where it asks whether to trust my CA code signing certificate, even after re-install.